Processors and other highly integrated electronic components require accurate voltage supplies capable of supplying large amounts of current and power, while maintaining tight voltage regulation and being subject to tight implementation area constraints. Multiphase voltage regulators, such as multiphase buck converters, are widely used to provide high current to such loads, providing a parallel arrangement that can be phase interleaved for fast dynamic response to load, line, and voltage target changes. Despite the parallel architecture, conventional multiphase buck converters are not well-suited for phase redundant operation, where the converter can operate robustly even in the presence of a non-catastrophic failure of one or more phases, while maintaining output regulation and some degraded capability to partially provide output current or power up to some fraction of the full capability of a system with no failed phases.
Thus, there is a need for a mechanism that enables multiphase voltage regulator operation with one or more non-catastrophic faulty phases.